By Samuel Malik

President Muhammadu Buhari has told the All Progressives Congress, APC, lawmakers to respect the party’s supremacy and put their personal interests in their “pocket”.

The President made the remark during his opening speech at the APC’s National Executive Committee meeting, the first since the 2015 general elections, at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

“Let APC work. Let the system work. I appeal to you to accept the superiority of the party. I cannot confine myself in Sambisa forest and refuse to participate in the meeting because I respect the superiority of the party,” Buhari said.

However, national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, and former interim chairman of the party and former governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, were conspicuously missing at the meeting.

Tinubu has not hidden his displeasure at the outcome of last month’s elections in the National Assembly that produced Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively, the emergence of the two has plunged the party into deep crisis.

While Buhari had always maintained that he was ready to work with whoever emerged leaders in the National Assembly, he has been quick to urge members to respect party decisions.

Friday’s meeting, which brought the who-is-who in the party, save for the two prominent absentees, was expected to resolve the crisis affecting the party, and the President’s message to the lawmakers is expected help ease tensions.